Free The Mystery of the Fire Dragon by Carolyn Keene Page B

another opening behind something else.”
    Against the far wall stood a very tall packing case. Nancy dashed over and peered behind it. “Here’s the answer,” she said. “There’s a door leading outside. Mr. Stromberg must have escaped this way.”
    The officer and the girls squeezed behind the packing case and opened the door. They found themselves in the rear yard of a department store. They ran across it and went into the service entrance. No one was around.
    “Luck was with Mr. Stromberg,” Officer Willet said grimly.
    The service entrance opened into the shipping room piled high with packages awaiting delivery. No shipping clerks seemed to be on duty. The officer and the girls rushed ahead until they came to swinging doors which opened into the first floor of the department store.
    “Mr. Stromberg made an easy getaway,” Willet remarked. “We may as well give up the chase and find him by some other method.”
    “You mean at his home?” George asked.
    The officer nodded. He and the girls walked around the block until they came to the front of the bookshop. Officer Fisher was amazed to see the four arrive from this new direction. They quickly explained what had happened, then he reported that no one had come out of either entrance to the bookstore.
    “Let’s go back and see the clerk,” Nancy proposed.
    They entered the shop once more and Officer Willet asked the girl clerk where Mr. Stromberg lived.
    “I—I d-don’t k-know,” the girl stammered. “I don’t want to stay here. I don’t like it. Please let me go home!”
    “Not yet,” the officer told her. “But don’t be frightened. We’ll take care of you. We just want you to tell us everything you know about Mr. Stromberg.”
    “N-nothing,” the girl replied. “I was sent here by an employment agency that has my name. He called up for a clerk. He said another girl had worked here only a few hours.”
    “That’s true,” Nancy said.
    Officer Willet looked through the desk for a clue to where Mr. Stromberg lived, but found nothing. He picked up a book of customers’ names and read them carefully.
    “I’ll phone some of these people to see if they know where Mr. Stromberg lives,” he said.
    “I’d suggest that you try Mrs. Horace Truesdale first. She was in here two different times when I was, and seemed to know him well.”
    This attempt to locate the bookshop owner failed completely. Mrs. Truesdale said she had no idea where he lived. Other customers gave the same answer.
    “I’ll try some of the neighboring stores,” the officer said, and went out. But he came back in a short time and reported that Mr. Stromberg, who had rented the shop six months before, was known as a very uncommunicative person and no one in the other shops knew where he lived.
    “We’re stymied for the time being,” George admitted. “But we’ll get those crooks yet!”
    Officer Willet smiled. “I like your enthusiasm. I hope we can live up to your hopes.”
    Before leaving the shop, Nancy telephoned Captain Gray to tell him the unfortunate result of her endeavors to apprehend the suspects. He sympathized with her, then remarked philosophically :
    “That’s a detective’s life! But we never give up.”
    He now reported that the police still had no clue to Chi Che Soong’s whereabouts. Furthermore, according to the detective guarding the entrance to Aunt Eloise’s apartment house, no suspicious person had been seen there.
    “But something is bound to break soon,” Captain Gray said. “We have so many police working on the case they’re sure to find at least one of the suspects.”
    As the three girls started for Aunt Eloise Drew’s apartment, all admitted to being a bit downcast. They had failed to learn anything more to help solve the mystery of Chi Che Soong’s disappearance.
    “Nancy,” George said, “if that was the manuscript you saw being taken from the safe, why is Chi Che still being kept away from home?”
    “I’m afraid,” Nancy